The Senate has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to end its contract with Systemspecs, the company providing e-payment platform for the operation of Treasury Single Account, TSA, for the federal government, Premium Times report.
Following a motion by Dino Melaye (APC-Kogi State), the Senate had, last year, constituted an adhoc committee headed by John Enoh (PDP-Cross River State) to investigate allegations that the TSA was being mismanaged and that Systemspecs was making excessive gains off the country.
Mr. Melaye alleged that Systemspecs charged the government one percent for each transaction, thereby making N2.5 billion after mopping up N25 Billion transferred to the treasury.
The report of the investigative committee was presented on Wednesday.
Mr. Enoh said his committee confirmed that Systemspecs charged a one-percent fee on every transaction on its platform.
President Muhammadu Buhari said recently that his government recouped N2 trillion through the TSA, meaning Systemspecs would have netted N20 billion.
He recommended that the “2013 contract renewal between Systemspecs and the CBN be terminated forthwith”.
The committee also advised that the “TSA one percent transaction fee be disregarded”.
Other recommendations were that the CBN should carry out an in-house inquiry to sanitise its procedure for the award of contracts and that it should identify the culprits in the contract and recommend them for prosecution.
The recommendations were adopted by the Senate.
However, the Senate asked the CBN to pay Systemspecs agreed fee for the services it had rendered.
